Item Details:

THE BEAUTIES

CARLOS VASQUEZ UBEDA

IMPRESSIONISM, 1897

Oil Painting on Canvas

Size: 29.0 x 21.13 in; 73.66 x 53.66 cm

Signed: Recto, lower rtght (replaced signature)

Carlos Vázquez Úbeda (31 December 1869, Ciudad Real – 31 August 1944, Barcelona) was a Spanish painter, illustrator and poster artist. In 1892, he received his first official recognition at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts and, the following year, was awarded a medal st the Exposition des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. Beginning in 1895, he exhibited at the Salon. In 1896, he accompanied Daniel Urrabieta Vierge on a trip through La Mancha, to create illustrations for Don Quixote, then went to Venice to fulfill several commissions; including portraits of Carlos, Duke of Madrid, and his family, for which he was honored with the title of "court painter". He had his first solo exhibition at the Sala Parés in 1903. Over the next few years, he had several showings at the Salon and, in 1906, was named a Knight in the Order of Alfonso XII. In 1908 his painting, "La Suegra" (The Mother-in-Law), was shown at the Salon and purchased by William Randolph Hearst. Two years later, he received a First Class prize at the National Exhibition for "The Wounded Torero". In 1915, he was elected President of the Reial Cercle Artístic de Barcelona [ca]. That same year, he was awarded a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. After that time, his wife began suffering from an illness that left her paralyzed, and he stopped exhibiting internationally, but increased his activity within Spain; culminating in a solo exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno in 1928. Early in 1937 he, his wife, and his daughter fled to Marseille. During this period, he was very prolific, selling his works in Paris and Oslo, where he also had a solo exhibit. They returned to Spain in 1938, and settled in Seville, where he painted a portrait of the notorious military commander, Gonzalo Queipo de Llano. After the war, they returned to Barcelona. One of his first works there involved a commission for decorations in the clinic of the famed ophthalmologist, Ignacio Barraquer. In 1944, he was named an Academician at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. He died later that year, of a heart attack, while painting in his studio.